Electronic gaming machines (sometimes referred to as poker machines or slot machines) have grown in popularity across the globe in recent decades. Their increasing popularity has also led to a significant rise in problem gambling being experienced by a rising percentage of gamblers. In Australia, for instance, over one third of all player losses on poker machines is estimated to come from problem gamblers (Productivity Commission Report on Gambling).
Governments have attempted to restrict problem gambling by restricting the environments of electronic gaming rooms (via lighting controls, the installation of clock displays, displaying of problem gambling advice notices, initiating smoking restrictions in gaming rooms etc) and by restricting the machines themselves (limiting the number of machines, limiting the denomination of bank notes accepted by the machines, slowing machine game rates and creating maximum bet limits on a single wager etc).
Unfortunately most measures introduced to date have been broad-brush approaches that have failed to reduce the incidence of problem gambling amongst poker machine players and have primarily resulted in severely limiting the playing experience of genuine recreational players.
The difficulty for the operators of poker machine venues and poker machine networks is that it is virtually impossible to detect a problem gambler from pure external observations (compared to the relative ease of detecting a person inebriated from alcohol or under the influence of drugs in the very same licensed venue).
Even once detected by a venue, a problem gambler can very easily move from venue to venue on a daily basis across a wide geographic region so as to avoid any further detection, and continue their habitual behaviour.
Access to Other Forms of Gambling
Problem gamblers can also gain relatively easy and virtually anonymous access to a wide and growing range of alternative electronic gambling venues via the internet, interactive televisions linked to homes and businesses via cable or satellite, mobile telephone, direct computer linkages to gambling venues via ISDN, the internet and other means of telecommunication connection, any or all of which also place the personal financial resources of such gamblers at high risk.
The detection of problem gamblers and their elimination from gaining access to gambling venues, gambling devices and gambling services are overcome by this proposed technical solution, which restricts access to poker machines, internet gambling sites, mobile telephone, direct computer linkages to gambling venues, and interactive televisions for the purposes of gambling, and through other mediums defined later, to only those players who are genuine recreational players, and thereby completely disallowing access to identified problem gamblers.